Dear Parents and Friends

On Tuesday night many of our Year 3 students made their first reconciliation with Fr. Andrew and Fr Ken. Reconciliation is the sacrament of Penance and Confession, among other names. Jesus knew well that many of us would forget our brave baptismal promises and commit grave sins after our Baptism. He knew that many of us would lose the grace, the sharing-in-God’s-own-life which came to us in Baptism. Since God’s mercy is infinite and unwearying, it seems inevitable that he would provide a second chance (and a third and a fourth and a hundredth if necessary) for those who might relapse into sin. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness and mean it.

See-Saw and Teacher Contact

See-Saw is a wonderful way for our teachers to show you some of the great things that your children are doing throughout the day. Please ensure that all correspondence is made through the school office and not on See-Saw. If you need to contact your children’s teacher, please do so using the info@hchdow.catholic.edu.au email address or by phoning the school office.

Principal Appraisal

As you are aware the Catholic Education Office will conduct a formal principal appraisal in June. A part of the process is a Panel Review, which will be occurring on Wednesday, 19 June 2019. The Panel is comprised of an external Educational Consultant, a peer Principal and a CEDoW Leadership member. On this day the Parish Priest, members of Staff, Students and a Parent representative group (approximately 12 parents) will meet with the panel. If you would like to be included in the parent group interview which will be scheduled for approximately 40 minutes, please speak with myself or contact the school office.

Semester One Reports (Years 1 - 6) and Interviews (Years K - 6)

Students Reports for Terms 1 & 2 will be sent home on Friday 21 June. These reports will hopefully give you an understanding of how your children are doing at school, areas that they have achieved in and areas where improvement may be made. Parent Teacher Interviews will take place on Monday 24 June and Wednesday 26 June from 2pm – 6pm. These interviews will be booked using the COMPASS portal and will be open for bookings from Monday 3 June. If you have any concerns or questions about how your children are doing at school, please do not wait untill then, make a time to have a chat to their class teacher.

Kindergarten 2020 Enrolments

The enrolment process has begun for Kindergarten 2020. It is hard to believe another year has passed and we will soon begin interviews for places in 2020. If you have a child beginning school next year, please ensure your application is lodged at the school office as soon as possible. Enrolment forms for Kindergarten 2020 are available from the school office or from our Website.

NAPLAN

Well done to the Year 3 and Year 5 students who completed NAPLAN last week. Students were calm and tried their very best. We look forward to the NAPLAN results showing us all just what a great job the students and teachers are doing at Holy Cross. A big thank you to Mr Body, who coordinated the NAPLAN process and to Miss Facci and Mrs Rowles for their support of the students during the week of testing.

7 Steps to Writing

On Saturday 1 June, Mrs Vezinias, Miss Costello and Mrs Rowles will attend a full day of teacher training aimed at supporting our students to be even better writers. These three fabulous teachers will return to Holy Cross and share with the rest of the staff all that they learnt on the day. I thank them for their commitment and professionalism to give up their weekend to help the students in our community. As principal I am proud of our staff and the amazing commitment, time and effort they put into their profession so that our children have every opportunity to be the best that they can be.

Mr Brendan Dickinson
Principal